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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Hello. I was wondering how I would go about removing mandrake 10. It is the only OS installed at the moment. I tried searching these forums and read in one thread that i would have to combine all the partitions used by mandrake and then format them. Where and how do I do this?

The real question is whether or not you want any of the files on the disk.

1. The simplest way is to just put in the CD of the new OS you want and let it auto format. It willl most likely erase Mandrake as well as all of your files.

2. if you want to save your stuff you can download a copy of Knoppix linux whihc is a LiveCD version of linux. Boot into it and just delete everything but the files you want to keep. It SHOULD be possible to boot off of Knoppix, erase Mandrake's file tree and install a new linux (or windows is the file system is FAT32 - known as vfat to linux.) withoutlosing that data. I have never tried it and don't plan to.

KInd of...I'm trying to install windows 2000 over mandrake...I thought I was going to autoformat using windows 2000, but by the time I had loaded the fourth windows 2000 boot disk, I got and error (blue screen, white text)...I dont really recall what it was (it was about half a page), but it basically told me to restart...Is there any other ways...i'd rather not do #2

here is the stop error I get at the end of the last boot disc....

Stop: c0000221
Unknown Hard Error
\systemRoot\System32\ntddll.dll

I think Mandrake is causing this because this had never happend before and the win2k disk is fine (no scrathes), which is why i want to remove Mandrake.

Aren't those bootdisks for recovery? Don't you have a bootable windows 2000 CD? I have always installed 2000 from CD and it started up fine regardless of what other partitions I had.

I'll tell you what. You can download a partitioning tool from Maxtor (I think it works on non-Maxtor drives, called MaxBlast3. Burn it to a CD and boot off of it should allow you to format everything clean

I guess what I need to know is what OSes do you have now and what do you want to end up with.

The way I understand it , you have Mandrake working, no windows and you want to have Windows 2000 working, no mandrake?

I'm new to using the linux OS and i've had nothing but problems from the get go with Mandrake v.10. I now want to uninstall it, and was wondering the best way to do so.

I have 2 current OS's, both on separate hard drives. However, Mandrake 10 is mounted on the '\' partition, while my XP OS is mounted on '\home\win_C' or something. Is there any safe way to remove the linux partition?

I'm afraid if i do just unmount my linux partition and format it, i'll lose the XP OS.

Sounds like you installed Windows XP under wine. If you remove Linux, you will lose Windows. Back up, use fdisk to take over the master boot record from lilo, partition, and reinstall windows alone if you want to lose Linux. That's your only choice.

linux_n00by if u want to completely remove whatever is on your hdd then u can go to www.putergeek.com and d/l a win98 boot up floppy from which u can format and fdisk if u want to...but if u r having probs with ur win2k install cds then I would make boot up floppies for install from them b4 u wipe out your os completely, because if it isn`t booting from the cd then u r going to end up sitting there with absolutely zilch

Goofball_77 I am not sure what ur set up is...u say u have 2 os on 2 separate hard drives and u want to remove linux from a partition? Is linux on one hdd and windoze on the other? or are they both on the same hdd using partitions?
If the are on separate hdd and each one is bootable in its own right then u can just format whichever one u don`t want and reinstall. If u want to keep the windoze hdd then unplug it from the ide cable if u r worried about losing data

originally, i was running XP home and i wanted to install M. 10 on my second HD. I inserted the M.10 disk 1, and ran the installation and when it came time to partition the drives in the 'partioning setup' during the M.10 installation, i was given this:

windows partition that was already mounted on /home/win_c (or something really close to that) and then i had the option of where to mount my linux. unsure of really what i was doing, i mounted it here "\" . to me, that says i mounted windows on top of linux (which, in most cases, i heard is not a bad thing)

When i boot the pc up now, i get like, 5 options: linux-smp, failsafe, linux, windows, floppy...

so obviously, linux is responsible for my boot selections.

i liked mandrake 10 and want to persue the OS further, but i just didn't like the way my setup was...i'd rather have Windows be responsible for my booting options.

my question is, i want to uninstall M.10....is there a safe way i can do this?

ok I am still a bit confused :-) I think u are saying that u have one hdd with windows on and u have another hdd that originally had winxp on it but u also installed linux on to it in a separate partition in which case do u want to keep the previous install of winxp that was on it b4 u installed linux....can u not keep winxp on one hdd and linux on another u can then set up winxp as primary hdd and linux as secondary hdd and use ur boot options in bios to boot from whichever hdd + os u want to use

the setup i originally had was not what you explained, so i'll just clarify it again (...sorry :S )

my original setup, was XP home on one HD, and XP Pro on the other HD. i wanted to start using Linux, so i got rid of my XP Pro (i had to keep Home as my siblings and family use that OS) and formatted that HD so i only had XP home on the OTHER HD, and proceed to install linux on the newly formatted HD.

anyway, i will try what you advised, and i'll just post something new if i have any questions

thanks for your help and patience.....i have trouble explaining things ...sigh

I'm going to respond to Goofball_77 in a separate post. This is to linux_n00by:

I am familiar with win2k as I've had to reinstall it at least once a year until I finally switched over to Mandrake. Like Tamsco, I've used the Win2000 installation CD and haven't had problems. What would happen (I'm pretty sure, even though I haven't actually HAD to do this exact procedure) is that Windows asks you where you want to install. It will show the hard drive with no partitions, or one or more unknown partitions (since Win2k doesn't recognize Linux partitions). You say: delete each partition. Then you create a new partition (presumably taking up the whole hard drive, or whatever you want) and then say, "I want to install Win2k on this partition." You can even create more than one partition and pick one into which to install Win2k. These will all be FAT32 or NTFS partitions since Windows won't make Linux partitions. (If you might install Linux later, keep in mind that Linux cannot reliably write to NTFS partitions since we still haven't figured out the specification yet, and Microsoft ain't talking.)

Win2k then installs itself. That's it. I've had to repartition and re-install about five times now, and it's always been a pretty smooth procedure. Wish I didn't have to keep doing it, but that's another story.

Goofball_77: You said that you want to let Windows handle the selection of the OS. Won't happen. Windows won't even acknowledge the existence of Linux, even though Linux tries to play fair. If you install Windows last, then you'll boot up in Windows. You won't even get to use Linux (unless you use something like a Knoppix CD to intercept the boot process before Windows gets to it).

From what you describe of your hard drives, this is what I *think* I'm hearing:

You have two hard drives, both in your computer at the same time. One contains Windows XP and the other contains Mandrake 10.

The question is, which hard drive contains which? There is a definite order to the hard drives, depending on how they're cabled together. Let me explain, and then I'll say why this is significant (I'll explain terms afterward):

The "Primary" and "Secondary" IDE channels are, for newbie purposes, the cables that connect your hard drive to the motherboard. If you open up your computer, you'll see these flat ribbon cables. Modern computers generally have two of them, connecting to the Primary and Secondary IDE channel on the motherboard. Each ribbon cable can connect to two hard drives. (A CD-ROM acts like a hard drive.) So you can have a total of four hard drives / CD-ROMs / whatever in your computer.

(For the record, the 1st hard drive is referred to as "/dev/hda" in Linux. The 2nd hard drive is "/dev/hdb", and so on.)

You don't necessarily have all four hard drives, of course; your two hard drives might be configured as "1st" and "3rd", for example. Note that under Windows, the hard drives are assigned drive letters "C:" and "D:" etc. in order, ignoring any non-existent drives. This means that, just because your drives are called "C:" and "D:" under Windows, they aren't necessarily 1st and 2nd; they might be 1st and 3rd, or 2nd and 4th, etc. You have to actually look inside your computer physically to find out. (Linux DOES differentiate, and if you have only 1st and 3rd, you'd have /dev/hda and /dev/hdc but no /dev/hdb.)

Most computers are set up to boot from the 1st hard drive, unless you've changed your BIOS settings. (Careful: some BIOSes refer to this as "hard drive 0", and "hard drive 1" is actually the 2nd hard drive, something that wasted hours of my time on a wild goose chase.)

Suppose Linux is on the 1st drive and WinXP is on the 3rd drive (my recommended config --I'll explain later). When you boot, you boot from the 1st drive and go into LILO, the program that lets you pick the operating system. (There's a substitute for LILO called GRUB, but Mandrake 10 uses LILO unless you ask for GRUB.) This LILO program itself is not on any particular partition, but is in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the 1st drive --sort of like the margin on the inside cover of a book, rather than any particular chapter. If you ask LILO to boot XP, fine, it goes to the other hard drive and XP starts running. If you ask LILO to boot Linux, that's okay, too; it goes to the 1st hard drive where the Mandrake partition is and starts running.

Now, suppose Linux is on the 3rd drive and WinXP is on the 1st drive. When you boot, you *still* boot from the 1st drive. LILO is still loaded on the MBR of the 1st drive, even though Mandrake itself is on the other drive.

This has consequences when you want to separate the drives. Suppose you say, "Well, I don't need Windows, so I'll just throw away this 1st hard drive with WinXP on it." Guess what? You can't boot Linux any more because LILO was on the 1st hard drive. If you keep the WinXP drive, you can boot XP, but there will still be LILO on it.

LILO has two jobs. One is to let you choose which OS to use. If you choose Linux, though, it has the additional job of actually loading the Linux kernel to get Linux up and running. That's why it's called LILO (LInux LOader). Keep this in mind for what's coming up next.

The point is, if you don't want Linux (well, LILO) to be in charge of booting, you have a choice! There are other boot managers, and one that I've used before and works well is SmartBootManager. Check out

This handy little program can be installed on hard drive, CD-ROM, or floppy, and is great for booting anything, such as working with old computers that cannot be set to boot from CD. (Yes, Smart Boot Manager is free.)

BUT ...

Smart Boot Manager can't *load* Linux. It can only transfer control of booting to whatever partition has your OS of choice, such as Linux. If Linux doesn't have LILO, it's still dead in the water.

What you need to do in that case is to install LILO *on the Linux partition*, not on the MBR itself. You had the option to do this when you first installed Mandrake 10 (although you've probably forgotten). You can still do it now, as follows: from the Main Menu button > System > Configuration > Configure Your Computer. (Then enter root password.) Boot > Bootloader. The default is LILO on /dev/hda. This means the MBR of /dev/hda itself (remember, "/dev/hda" is what Linux calls your 1st hard drive). To put LILO on a partition, such as /dev/hda7 or /dev/hdc1, select that actual choice from the drop-down menu. You have to know where you installed Linux. If you don't know, type "mount" in a console/terminal/shell and look for the line that says "on / " with a space after the slash.

(By the way, remember this boot config screen --I'll come back to it later.)

Assuming you've done this, LILO is now also loaded on whatever partition actually contains Linux. Then you can use whatever boot program you want, whether it's also LILO or whether it's Smart Boot Manager. You won't, however, use Windows because it will be a cold day in hell before Microsoft writes any software that acknowledges the existence of Linux. (Don't worry, that day will be coming soon, but not just yet.)

I hope this answers your question. If not, you better explain it a bit more. (Actually, a LOT more.)

Remember that boot config screen I told you to remember? It also has options for APIC, local APIC, and ACPI settings. You mentioned "no end of troubles" with Mandrake 10. These settings might help if it's a matter of Mandrake not working well with the hardware. That's anothet story, though.

Thank you, KWTm (and mermxx) for this advice. You made things super clear to me, and it's muchly appreciated. You got my situation right on the dot

I'm gonna try a few things in the next few days, as i'm strapped down with work and such

i DO wanna try mandrake again....but i'm afraid i've screwed something up in the install

my 'no end of troubles' is actually only 2 problems. i was able to access the Internet upon installation, but when restarting the computer and logging in, i cannot get onto the net anymore. i've tried creating new connections (i have a ADSL modem: NetSpeed from Telus...<grumble> with an Ethernet adaptor. I've tried ENDLESS configurations, and i STILL cannot access the net (cannot start my adsl connection using the 'adsl-start' cmd...i recieve a timed out error). I recieve an assigned IP address from my DHCP server and get the appropriate DNS servers that correspond to my Windows setup (ipconfig /all shows the same thing that i get in my ifconfig eth0 in linux)....i just still can't get on the net

2nd problem is just the other day i booted up into mandrake 10, and i no longer have the GUI at startup. i have to log in as my username, and run the 'startx' command for it to boot up.....kinda mysterious.

ANYWAY, you guys have probably had enough of my grief for a long time.....and it's time for me to sleep

Originally posted by Goofball_77
i was able to access the Internet upon installation, but when restarting the computer and logging in, i cannot get onto the net anymore.

Then you changed something somewhere. Computer equipment and software does not self-reconfigure upon reboot unless you tell it to. Are you abso-friggin-lutely sure you didn't put a tweak in there somewhere or click something in the control panel inadvertently saving new settings while you were exploring your new OS?

If you are running Mandrake 10, and your modem is connected and powered up while installing, Mandrake automatically finds it and configures your internet connection for you, and that configuration is saved to text files which are read again on boot up. Only editing the files or playing with GUI tools that edit the files would hose that up.

Quote:

I've tried creating new connections (i have a ADSL modem: NetSpeed from Telus...<grumble> with an Ethernet adaptor. I've tried ENDLESS configurations, and i STILL cannot access the net (cannot start my adsl connection using the 'adsl-start' cmd...i recieve a timed out error). I recieve an assigned IP address from my DHCP server and get the appropriate DNS servers that correspond to my Windows setup (ipconfig /all shows the same thing that i get in my ifconfig eth0 in linux)....i just still can't get on the net

Are you using a router? What is your hardware setup? Can you use the modem from Windows?

Quote:

2nd problem is just the other day i booted up into mandrake 10, and i no longer have the GUI at startup. i have to log in as my username, and run the 'startx' command for it to boot up.....kinda mysterious.

I'm convinced you did something in the control panel while exploring. This setting is an easy one to fix. After you startx, then go into "configure your computer", click on boot, and then look inside for options to start the display manager on boot and use a graphical interface during boot. You can even tell it to auto-login your favorite user ID on boot if you like.

Words of Wisdom for the new Linux OS owner:

1. Be careful clicking around the control panel. Click slowly, read carefully, and exit out without saving settings by killing the window itself using the X in the top right of the title bar when in doubt as to whether or not you have clicked something accidentally. Clicking OK saves any new settings.

2. Keep a Journal! Write down every config change you make to your system.

[#] Set static IP address in router and turned off router DHCP. Added PC IP to IP passthrough in router.

That way you know what you did wrong.

Last words of wisdom:

3. A new linux user always should install more than one distribution to try different ones out, and the one that they stick with, they should probably break and reinstall five to ten times before they settle down to actually using it. That's how you learn to do stuff like compile your kernel, install drivers correctly, install from source, uninstall programs correctly, etc: TRIAL and ERROR.